Tyson Fury says retirement is not on his mind ahead of this month’s world heavyweight title fight with Dillian Whyte, who was this time involved in Thursday’s press conference.
The all-British contest was announced in February and while 94,000 tickets have since been sold for the Wembley Stadium clash on April 23, doubts lingered over whether Fury’s opponent would turn up after a no-show at a media event last month.
It saw Fury taking control of a press conference where he admitted this upcoming fight may be his last, but the WBC-belt holder played down that talk before Whyte appeared on the virtual press call and explained his motives behind the radio silence.
Fury said: “I am only thinking about Dillian Whyte at this moment, I am not thinking about retirement. That will all come after I have had the fight and we will think about what is to come, what the future holds for me.
“At the minute I have a massive task in Dillian. A lot of people are underestimating Dillian Whyte – but not me.
“I give the guy all the respect he deserves throughout the training camp, I have been training since January, breaking all records in the gym, so I am feeling good, looking good. I am not underestimating this guy and have given him the respect I did for Deontay Wilder.”
This will be Fury’s first fight in the UK since 2018 after all three of his bouts with Wilder took place across the Atlantic.
After an extra 4,000 tickets went on sale earlier this month, this event is now set to break a new sporting record for attendance at the new Wembley.
“I have been on the road since 2018, been in some tough fights around the world and it’s finally good to come back and create some records on UK soil,” Fury added.
“To be fighting at the national stadium in London, it just shows how much the fans support me and I am overwhelmed at the support I have been shown since the comeback, since the second career, it has been absolutely fantastic.
“I just want to say a massive thank you to every person who bought a ticket and made this event possible. Not only me, the opponent and the promoters make this happen, without the fans there would be no event and that is a fact.”
Whyte faced the media after Fury and explained why he had not taken part in any promotion for the domestic clash until he put out a social media post on Wednesday.
The Brixton boxer failed to turn up to the press conference at Wembley on March 1, which saw Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren label the mandatory challenger a “disgrace”.
When these guys are trying to mug me off and treat me like this is the Tyson Fury show, they are going to get certain things corrected.
“When these guys are trying to mug me off and treat me like this is the Tyson Fury show, they are going to get certain things corrected so once things got corrected and we were close to getting them corrected, I am a professional so now here I am,” Whyte insisted.
“This is business. It is not the Tyson Fury show. Everybody says ‘Tyson Fury this, Tyson Fury that’. If Tyson Fury was the big star, he would have sold out the fights with Deontay Wilder. The fights were never sold out so this sold out because of me and Tyson Fury.
“Tyson Fury fought Wilder and Wilder was the biggest superstar ever and none of the fights sold out. Let’s be honest about it. It is not just the Tyson Fury show, it is the Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte show. We are both in the fight together so certain things need to be done correctly.
“I don’t dance to no one’s (sic) tune, I am a warrior and survivor. We can dance together but it can’t be one-way traffic so things needed to be sorted out, things needed to be arranged and had to get done. That is it.
“I am a disciplined guy, I have learned to be disciplined over the years and, OK, if you want me to do things, I am up for it.
“I am a professional, I have had six or seven pay-per-view shows and I have worked hard on them and always looked after my opponents and dealt with them correctly.”
